Fiction Book Review: 299 Days

The realism of the "partial collapse" scenario

I apologize in the delay for my next review, I’ve been juggling a few projects. A piece in a print magazine, an essay for a publication, and finishing reading my next review item. But in light of what is going on in the world, I wanted to review and recommend my favorite piece of what I like to call “Prepper Porn”.

299 Days is a series written by a man under the pseudonym “Glen Tate”. It’s about what he calls a “Partial Collapse” scenario, when the systems of our country are operating in a severely degraded state where the government has hit or miss authority. The supply chains get logjammed, fuel becomes scarce, and utilities become unreliable.

But if your area becomes a little too much of a problem, you still might get MRAPs of National Guardsmen coming your way.

Most Prepper Porn has the same problem that Political Fiction does, where the story is just a vehicle for the ideology of the writer. Implausible scenarios that aren’t properly fleshed out serve as a method for the writer to demonstrate effective preparations for a calamity or the problems they believe might present themselves. Sometimes it’s an EMP, sometimes it’s a zombie apocalypse, or others it’s a civil war or alien invasion. The advice within is often good but the story itself ends up being shoddy minimalistic scaffolding.

299 days left a lasting impression on me for its plausible storyline paired with that good advice.

He was hardly paying attention to the radio news announcer when she said nonchalantly, "The nation's credit rating has been lowered again. Moody and Standard and Poor, which rate stocks and bonds, have lowered the U.S. bond rating ..." blah, blah, blah. The U.S. Government's bond rating had been lowered earlier from AAA to AA. This was yet another downgrade, now from AA to A.

The radio news went on, "Experts predict that Uncle Sam's cost of borrowing money will go up yet again. In other news..." This meant that Moody and Standard and Poor were telling investors that buying bonds from the U.S., loaning money to the U.S. for it to spend on unsustainable social programs, was no longer a safe investment. Grant knew what this meant. Collapse.

The Book

The series is comprised of 10 books that revolve around the evolution of the protagonist, Grant Matson. His journey takes him from aging Baby Boomer lawyer to the Judge of an independent rural enclave in Washington State. The first book does start off quite slow and requires some investment and persistence to get to the point where it truly gets gripping. Grant remembers his childhood in rural WA, graduating law school, moving to Seattle, getting married, having children, and ultimately declining into a domesticated dockers wearing normie husband.

The exposition is a bit of an acquired taste and perhaps a bit jarring for the Millennial or Zoomer reader/listener. Consider this a bit of an anthropological study to better understand the professional class suburban baby boomer, and that aspect will become more tolerable for all of my Based readers out there. There is valuable knowledge and food for thought in this series as the author himself was a lawyer for the Governor of Washington for a time and has also worked as a Constitutional Lawyer.

The Collapse

One of the largest takeaways from this series is that it focuses on a realistic scenario for a partial collapse, from start to resolution. The books follow Grant and his evolution into understanding that something is wrong, that he must prepare, and the life cycle of how he gains skills and prepares for hard times. You should note based on the date the series was written (2012) that many norms and issues have changed already and that this was very much on the pulse of the zeitgeist of that time, but is perhaps a little bit dated in terms of perspective through no fault of its own.

What makes this series stand out however, is not the preps or the characters, although those items do pass the bar and hold up acceptably. But the concept for how the collapse begins, in specificity, complexity, and plausibility, is second to none. Since reading this series I have watched conditions become increasingly worse, and all of the boxes Glen Tate checks in his story feel very prescient to today in a way that they did not in 2012.

• China begins to withdraw its equity out of the United States and demand payment for certain debts.

• California and Washington default on their bloated state budgets, when they attempt furloughs, pension reductions, or hiring freezes, the state bureaucracy goes on strike. When they attempt austerity on benefits such as MediCal or EBT, the poor riot.

• The Federal Reserve begins printing money to support blue state unfunded obligations until the prospect of hyperinflation begins to loom.

• The credit rating of the U.S. is downgraded twice in rapid succession in the middle of a bailout of CA and WA, and the federal government takes over administration of those states budgets.

• The immigration crisis spins out of control on the border of Texas, as the Federal Government is not deporting migrants and lacks facilities to house them, FEMA then takes control of the situation and bungles it even worse. Public outcry over a viral image of a FEMA worker on a radio asking for more water with a migrant child dead of dehydration in the background spurs further outrage.

• CBP gives up and migrants stream unimpeded into Texas, going so far as to enter suburbs of cities going door to door, demanding food, water, and shelter. Sporadic violence ensues.

• FEMA begins confiscating state property from Texan State/County/Local agencies for use in the border crisis, eventually pushing Texas to take the resources back and kick several federal agencies out of the state with the promise that “Texans will take care of Texas.”

• As hyperinflation begins to take its toll, the government begins to expropriate wealth to stem the tide through the confiscation of pension funds, 401k’s, and brokerage accounts. Capital flees the country and the government begins issuing EBT-like “Freedom Cards” to citizens in exchange.

• Various types of gangs and militias begin to spring up to both engage in and defend their communities from looting and violence.

• Other states begin to form compacts with each other, and begin to perform “soft-secession” by forcing federal agencies out of several states without any outright declarations of secession.

• The federal government begins recruiting ideologically inclined civilians into the “Freedom Corps” to obtain the manpower to perform shakedowns and sloppily enforce order among populations across the nation.

There are many more clever and plausible scenarios over the course of the story. The mental breakdown of surprisingly high levels of the population when prescription anti-psychotics and SSRI’s run out, mass death of those who require medicine to survive. Conflicts surrounding where to keep utilities running in the winter. The whole saga is full of creative and interesting scenarios that you otherwise might not think of on your own, and some that will feel awfully close to home 10 years after these books began being written.

Another interesting aspect of the series is the ongoing interactions between Grant and his family. As a married man with children, the drama of a husband getting buy-in from his bluepilled AWFL wife and keeping his kid safe add an interesting dynamic to the story that is not usually present in the genre. Considering the author divorced the woman she was based on in real life, I’m not surprised I grew to hate her more than any other character. But confronting the logistics of an economic collapse is a completely different paradigm when others rely on you.

There are some things that haven’t aged well, such as the authors faith in the Oathkeepers as a player, which at the time seemed pretty reasonable as the organization had not been truly tested. Knowing what we know now about Stewart Rhodes and the leadership of that organization, that aspect of the books has not aged well.

Where Should You Read This Book?

On the airplane, in the terminal, on the road, or before you go to bed.

I highly recommend the audiobook of 299 days. The entire series is narrated by Kevin Pierce, famous as the “Voice of the Apocalypse” who narrates many different prepper/apocalypse novels. He has a calming gravely voice of a kind old man, like your grandfather explaining to you how the “Old World” went away.

Where Should You Buy This Book?

299 days is available on Amazon, either in paperback or Audible audiobook. I will say that one of the pain points with this series is price. Clocking in at around 10-15 dollars per book for a 10 book series, buying the entire series is something the budget conscious reader may balk at.

These books are also a bit short for this price, clocking in at a range of between 250-400 pages per book. Apparently the comforting voice of Kevin Pierce demands an extra premium as well if you splurge on the audiobook version like I did (I did a lot of driving for my job when I hammered through the audio version of the entire series)

But in my estimation, it’s worth it. I’ve read a lot of prepper fiction, and most of it is garbage. This is one of the most memorable and insightful books in the genre that I have ever read, and has permanently changed my calculus when I consider domestic conditions in this country. It keeps ringing true more and more often over the years, and I highly recommend it.

Buy 299 Days: The Preparation on Amazon